1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to manufacture of package filler material; and, more particularly, to an automatic traction control system for expanding and deploying compact tightly wound paper with die cut slits suited for expansion and deployment of packaging material that cushions articles in a shipping package.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous prior art patents and disclosures relate to delivering paper from cylindrical packages and cutting the papers into sheets of specific sizes. Generally the paper sheet has no slits provided therein and are merely crinkled to create a packaging filler material that is used to surround delicate objects in a packaging. In some patents the paper rolls may have cut slits and the paper with cut slits is expanded to form a packaging material. Paper is not delivered automatically from the cylindrical paper package and is immediately used in small selected sizes to wrap packages. Patents which use crinkling or crumbling to create a package are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,548,789 and 1,550,084 to Lorenz; U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,169 to Walton, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,896 to Komaransky et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,761 to Reichental et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,765 to Toth; U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,251 to Harding et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,277,459 to Lencoski et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,673,001 to Toth and U.S. Pat. No. 7,479,100 to Toth. These documents do not disclose use of precut paper rolls. Similarly US published patent applications number 20110195831 to Cheich et al.; 20110230326 to Kung et al.; and 20130237398 to Lintala et al. disclose devices that create crumpled or folded packaging pads.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,778 to Hurwitz et al. discloses method and apparatus for producing individual rolls of packing material. The paper roll with slits is expanded using a separate machine that has two cylinders rotating at different speeds, and this expansion produces a cylinder with interlocking features. This machine does not deliver expanded sheets of paper with a three dimensional structure from a paper roll having precut slits according to the packaging length needs of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,871 to Goodrich, et al. discloses slit sheet packing material. A filling material for use in filling hollow spaces in packaging or the like comprises one or more pieces of flexible paper material. The paper material has a plurality of individual slits formed in parallel spaced rows extending transversely from one end of the paper material to the opposing end of the paper material. The slits in adjacent alternate rows are positioned adjacent the interval space between adjacent slits in the adjacent parallel row of slits. The flexible paper material is expanded by extending the opposing ends of the paper material, which are parallel to the rows of slits. The slits form an array of openings, each opening being generally hexagonal in shape and of the same size. The length and width of the flexible filling paper material can be varied. The construction of the flexible paper filling material permits it to be easily stored in the non-expandable position and easily expanded for use when filling hollow spaces in packaging. As shown in FIG. 2 of the Goodrich, et al. patent, precut sheets are stacked and expanded prior to use in a packaging application. The sheets are not delivered from a continuous roll. Pulling of a sheet forms the expanded configuration, tearing the sheet according to desired lengths of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,989,075 to Kao, et al. et al. discloses a tension activatable substrate that is a dual intensive property tissue. The tissue has a first set of intensive properties including density, surface area, thickness and void volume as presented to the consumer. The consumer plastically activates the tissue by pulling it in tension. A series of slits 44 or other lines of weakness elongate in a direction parallel to the line of tension, allowing the tissue to achieve a second state of intensive properties. The value of the second state of intensive properties is different after activation. The change in value of the intensive properties allows for economies in shipping, where a higher density product is shipped to the consumer. At the point of use, the consumer activates the product to achieve the increase surface area and lower density. Activation is triggered by applying tension to the flat sheet, which is presented in the first state. The activated expanded second sheet is not presented to the customer in a condition that is ready for packaging.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No 20130240657 to Kuchar et al. (hereinafter, “the '657 patent application publication”) discloses apparatus to deploy and expand web material. This dispenser deploys and expands cut web material uniformly to form a three dimensional lattice. The unexpanded web material is substantially longer than it is wide. The web material is die cut and has essentially parallel longitudinal strands on opposite transverse sides. The dispenser tracks the threaded web material over three rollers, and uses an adjustable braking mechanism that creates diagonal web tension to pull the paper from the roll. After the web material is threaded through the mechanism, simply pulling the web material on the opposite side from the rollers deploys and expands it simultaneously. The unit can accommodate a plurality of rolls of web material mounted to deploy and expand either individually or simultaneously. The web material itself may have more than one layer. An exemplary embodiment of the dispenser is a motorized version, where a motorized guide wheel assembly pulls the web material, thereby eliminating the necessity of manual deployment. The web material of paper with slits is inserted on bar 6 and pulled through the machine and drawn through the motorized drive. Since the distance between left side roller and the right side roller is the same as that of the paper width inserted in the bar at 5, limiting lateral expansion of the paper.
Based on the foregoing, there exists a need in the art for an automatic compact machine that readily accepts one or more rolls of paper with pre cut slit shapes adapted to expand and create a three dimensional packaging product. It would be particularly desirable if the machine is equipped with means for gently delivering the paper with slits without undue stretching of the paper. It would also be desirable if the paper was designed to expand to the three dimensional shape at the same time that the automatic features of the machine pull out the precut paper. Such a machine would be highly advantageous in that tearing the expanded paper product at desired lengths would efficiently and reliably produce a filler material that facilitated packaging of delicate articles during shipping.